The descriptions of Senior Seminars for next year appear below. In order to enroll in a Seminar, you MUST to do two things:
1. Complete the Preference Form. It is available in the Psychology Department office. After completing it, return the form to the Psychology office.
2. Receive permission of the instructor. You should talk to the professor teaching the class and make sure you receive explicit permission to enroll.
Fall, 2008 |
Spring, 2009 |
Seminar in Feminist Psychology Professor Carla Golden |
|
Seminar in Clincal and Counseling Psychology |
Seminar in Neuroscience Professor Jack Peck |
This seminar will address an array of controversial and frequently misunderstood topics in psychology. The semester will be divided approximately in half with the first half devoted to critical analysis of a variety of psychological issues, and the second half consisting of student presentations and continued class discussion on specific issues of students’ choosing. Potential topics include controversial diagnoses and treatment approaches, false and repressed memories, gender differences, self-esteem, intelligence testing, and many others. Skills emphasized include critical analysis, active participation in class discussion, and refinement of writing and presentation practices.
Psychology did not exist until a little over a century ago. Many of the ideas psychologists study now had precursors in pseudoscience and superstition. Since then, psychology has become important in social and scientific ways. However, psychology as we know it now did not develop in a vacuum. Culture and society shape the people who develop ideas, so psychological ideas are necessarily the result of the combination of the person, the culture, and the issues that society deems important.
This course will help you understand issues such as how Freud developed his ideas of the unconscious; why Watson came up with behavioral theory; how the World Wars fostered the development of clinical psychology; and how, in general, various psychological ideas emerged. One facet of this course is that it will help you prepare for the Psychology GRE test by providing an overview and a review of the major ideas and systems of psychology.
This seminar is for advanced psychology students and those who are considering graduate school in areas such as clinical, counseling, school, social work, art therapy, or any applied practice in which they will be directly helping and supporting clients with psychological evaluation or intervention. The seminar examines the practice of psychology closely from different professional, philosophical and personal perspectives. During the semester students will meet with professionals in a variety of areas. Students will also hear from patients and clients who will report on their experiences and evaluate the treatments they received. Students will also hear criticisms of current mental health practice.
This seminar will explore the relationship between emotion and cognition/well-being and will look at the relationship between issues commonly thought of as involving mind vs. brain. Students will spend the first five weeks of the semester on joint readings and discussion and then select a topic to research independently. They will present a 40-minute Power Point presentation on their topics and will write a 25-page APA style paper. During the semester, demonstrations will be carried out in the Mind-Body Lab.
This seminar will examine a set of “big picture” psychological issues, namely the impact of gender, race, and social class on how people are treated and how they experience the world around them. We will examine these issues by reading a book each week; texts are contemporary and generally about 200 pages in length. Readings from previous years include Appetites: why women want, Girlfighting: Betrayal and rejection among girls, Getting off: Pornography and the end of masculinity, Flirting with danger: young women’s reflections on sexuality and domination, Taking it personally: Racism in the classroom from kindergarten to college. The two and a half hour class period will provide the opportunity to engage in lively discussion of the often controversial issues raised in each text. A paper due at the end of the semester is based on an integrative understanding of the books we’ve read during the semester.
Register for IISP 49200
The seminar in neuroscience is required for neuroscience minors, others may
enroll if space exists. The seminar deals with topics in the sciences in general,
and neuroscience in particular. In the past, students have given one short and
one long presentation and written a paper on the long presentation. Topics like
neuroscience techniques, neural diseases and the bio-tech industry have been
presented by students.
Created March 17, 2008